Book of Demons is a dungeon-crawler that contains an addictive card game element as the crux of its gameplay design while making the experience as easy as possible for the player to stay focused on creative elements of the game. While it does request you to think strategically about how you approach each dungeon as you explore them, it doesn’t throw an overbearing layer on top of its simplistic gameplay design that muddles up the fun it wants you to have as you progress through the game.
With Christmas just a few days away, what better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than with Book of Demons from Thing Trunk. It’s a dungeon-crawler that is driven by paper dolls hopping around, RPG elements of discovery and fighting off fantasy creatures, and contains a card game to add just a bit more depth and intrigue into the whole mix. Hovering over all of it is a thick cloud of simplicity. What more could you want for a relaxing Christmas time?
Book of Demons was recommended to me by another editor during a review event in November. I wasn’t sure what to make of it when he was describing it, but looking back on the simplicity of the gameplay being thrown out to me, the stop-and-go gameplay of it, which he thought was a big selling point of the game, it all makes sense now. To be quite honest, readers, I wish I played this sooner (just a busy holiday) because I cannot recommend this game enough to you. It’s everything he said it would be, and possibly a bit more.
Book of Demons gameplay doesn’t ask much from your attention or attendance. It wasn’t built to occupy y our time, nor was it built for you to be involved with it like you’re taking care of a newborn puppy. It just wants you to stop in and say hi once in a while, kind of like how your parents feel about you during college. They want you to stop by, get some food, but promptly get the (bleep) out so they can feel kid-less again. Some of you may not immediately understand that, but you will someday.
Anyway, the gameplay is constructed to allow for stop and go gaming, which is fantastic for those of us with a lot of things going on day-to-day. That structure echoes throughout the game design, as the gameplay just asks three things from you:
– Use your mouse to move and attack.
– Pay attention to your macros on the keyboard to heal, attack, and strategize.
– Equip the right cards to avoid death.
The controls are pick up and go with Book of Demons. While reviewing, I didn’t have a mouse readily available for my Mac, so I was able to use the touchpad on the laptop. Nothing fell off the gameplay map because of this, meaning that the controls didn’t get worse or anything of that nature. The game was built not to demand a lot out of you when it comes to this controls. Your paper doll character is on a preset rail that stops at intersections as you hop around. Picture a flowchart that splits off once in a while, and you get the railing system. You need only tell the character where to go on these rails when to fight enemies, and what to pick up — all of this achieved through clicking the mouse, or touchpad in my case. The way the movement functions is comparative to a point and click game, as you point at a spot on the path, you click, the character moves to it. You can deviate that movement at any time by clicking on a different point on the path, then the character moves the new direction.
With regard to attacking, you simply just point at an enemy and continuously click on the mouse button. Each click on the enemy, if they’re within range, will take off a predetermined amount of health, depending on how strong your character is at the time (you level up as you progress — therefore, you get stronger). Some enemies have a lot a hearts, some have shields that you have to take down before you start hitting them, some enemies are tied to other enemies, which require you to destroy the lesser ones before getting to the main one. Now, if you don’t want to continuously click on the enemy, you can let the game sit back and do it for you, but you won’t get the same speed from the game through automation.
Again, simplistic gameplay that just wants you to point and have fun in the easiest possible ways.
To add an element of depth and complicated design to the whole process, there is a card game element that drives half of the game. As you continually take down baddies from each dungeon you explore, you will run into treasures dropped by enemies, discover items hidden in jars, or find items in other areas of the map, such as a crypt. Outside of health and wealth, two things you want to keep striving to obtain, you will find attribute cards that grant you strengths and power. There are plenty of cards to be had in this game, such as the card that grants you peppermint (below) that is a spell you can use against enemies. Most of the cards that I ran into during gameplay were creative as they were funny and equally useful at some point in the game. All of the cards are limited in use, so make sure you include them in the attack strategies when need be. Some of the cards will be more effective than others, again strategy, so choose and choose wisely.
Anyway, that’s a huge part of the gameplay, so pay attention to your card collection and assign the right cards for the right dungeons and enemies. I think this was the most addictive part of the game, as well as a motivating factor to keep exploring.
Other than the above, and some additional gameplay attributes, such as talking to villagers and gaining gossip/information from them, as well as items, there’s not much else to Book of Demons on the gameplay side of the tracks. And trust me, folks, that’s not a bad thing. Thing Trunk did one helluva job delivering a great game with some deep elements, while at the same time designing the gameplay to KISS (keep it simple stupid). The game wants you to pick it up and go, but at the same time encourages you to stop and come back later. It’s so rare to find a modern PC game that fits this mold. It reminds me a lot of how I felt towards The Binding of Isaac, where you can get as involved as you want, but it’s not trapping your time long enough to keep you away from life around you. When you can design that balance, then you’re going to have a successful game on your hands. Book of Demons is a successful game.
Overall, Book of Demons is a dungeon-crawler that contains an addictive card game element as the crux of its gameplay design while making the experience as easy as possible for the player to stay focused on creative elements of the game. While it does request you to think strategically about how you approach each dungeon as you explore them, it doesn’t throw an overbearing layer on top of its simplistic gameplay design that muddles up the fun it wants you to have as you progress through the game.
